Ethiopia Strong Partner in Promoting Global Health: Ambassador of Norway to Ethiopia

Addis Ababa June 9/2022 /ENA/ Ethiopia is a strong partner in promoting global health and a solid bilateral partner, Ambassador of Norway to Ethiopia Merete Lundemo said.

Addressing the 5^th Conference on Ethiopia and Norway Collaboration on Health and Higher Education today, Lundemo said Norway is committed to sustainable development goal 3 to improve health internationally.

Here in Ethiopia, Ambassador Lundemo the collaboration started a long time ago just after the World War-II with the missionaries work in many places in the country and more than 50 years ago in 1969, Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI) was established with the support from Norway and Sweden.

Citing that the cooperation has been growing over the years, she said today, many institutions in Ethiopia and Norway work together as the training and research among the areas of cooperation.

She further highlighted that these partnerships focus on a range of four themes around ethics, practice and research, gender, trauma care and non- communicable and communicable disease.  

“Ethiopia is a strong partner in promoting global health and also a solid bilateral partner with institutions, civil societies and private actors that engage in cooperation,” Ambassador Merete affirmed.

“Today, we recognize and celebrate partnerships and this conference provides platforms for networking and sharing.”

Director General of Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI), Professor Afework Kassu said the exemplary nature of the Ethio-Norway health and higher education conference is that it has brought together Ethiopian an Norwegian institutions and researchers to address very important health and development agendas.

“We would like to recognize research collaborations of Ethiopian researchers and post-graduate students with Norwegian institutions including the University of Oslo, University of Bergen, and the Norwegian institute of public health,” he stated.

For Professor Afework, the synergies with health research institutions like AHRI, the Ethiopian Public Health Institute, the Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology (ALIPB) and synergies with academic institutions like our pioneer Addis Ababa University and the more than 50 other universities we have in Ethiopia are critically important.

Therefore, he added, the partnerships shall be further strengthened and shall be led strategically for better outcomes and impacts since the synergistic moves will have diverse and crosscutting implications for holistic national growth and development.  

The 5th Conference held today focused on the key areas including Ethics in Public Health Care, Gender in public health, Trauma Care, Non-Communicable Diseases, and Communicable Diseases.